Rigging of modern windsurfing boards and sails requires the use of three separate tools. A screw driver is needed to install the fin into the fin box and to fasten the foot straps onto the deck of the board. Many of the booms in use today rely on a series of holes in the tubes comprising the boom and extension tubes, with push pins to hold them into position. This arrangement allows for adjustment of the boom length to accommodate the different widths of the sails used to handle the range of wind speeds encountered and requirements of a particular sailor. Many of the mast bases rely on push pins to lock onto the mast or mast extension. To facilitate depressing the push pins a small punch, stud, or other narrow blunt instrument is often used; especially when sand, dirt or corrosion has entered into the mechanism. Many of the sails in use today require substantial down-haul tension to bend the mast and give the sail the proper shape for efficient operation. Similarly, many sails require a substantial amount of outhaul tension. To achieve this degree of downhaul and/or outhaul tension, the windsurfing equipment manufacturers have added two and three part blocks to the mast bases and boom rear ends. To fit this number of turns on the blocks and tack and/or clew of the sail necessitates using small diameter (&lt;1/4") line. This small line is difficult to hold directly in hand when exerting the 20+ pounds of force required to tension the down-haul and/or out-haul. To increase the amount of force applied by hand, sailors often use an extra boom extension tube to tie into line to give them something to grip when tensioning the line.
There is a commercially available downhaul and outhaul rigging tool referred to as "Easy-Rig". The "Easy-Rig" is comprised of a jam cleat molded into the form of a plastic handle. Although the "Easy-Rig" does work as an effective line gripping tool, the nature of the design makes it susceptible to rapid wear of the teeth in the jam cleat. This wear is worsened when the sand and grit normally found in and on the line begins to abrade the gripping surfaces of the teeth.
There is a commercially available push pin tool called the "Boom Button". This device is a plastic sleeve with a stud mounted on it that can be used to depress the push pins when adjusting the boom. The sleeves are slipped onto the booms (one on each side) and must be left there until the booms are disassembled.
It goes without saying that screwdrivers are commercially available for use in installing the windsurfer fins and foot straps. At present, the sailor is required to carry around three separate tools to perform to job of rigging a windsurfer. In addition, when using a boom extension or the like as the rigging tool, the line must be knotted properly so it can be removed after tensioning. Often during rigging the downhaul line must be retied further along the line as the sail is brought down closer to the block. For those less skilled in seamanship this repetitive knot tying can be bothersome. The "Easy-Rig" is effective when new but the limited working lifetime of the gripping mechanism results in its being thrown away or used simply as an instrument to tie the line to rather than grip it in the worn jam cleat.